Kenneth Feinberg, the man called in to navigate compensation issues in nearly every American crisis, was appointed Friday as the “special master” to oversee the distribution of money donated to the Aurora Victim Relief Fund.

At a late afternoon news conference at the Capitol, Feinberg said the nearly $5 million in donations for victims of the Aurora theater shooting should be delivered “quickly without restriction.”

“What is vitally important,” Feinberg said, “is the necessity to get this money out to those in need and who have suffered a terrible, terrible loss.”

Summoning Feinberg is an important step toward distributing the money from a victims fund filled with donations after the July 20 shooting that killed 12 people and injured 58 others.

The issue over distribution of the fund has become contentious, with some families alleging the fund has been mismanaged and mishandled.

Feinberg said he expects that frustration will continue.

“I fully expect there will be heat, criticism, anger and frustration,” he said. “How can there not be that?”

Feinberg, a Washington, D.C., attorney, has been called the national “Great Decider” and has had a role in nearly every modern national crisis and tragedy.

He ran the Sept. 11 victim fund, handled the $20 billion BP oil spill recovery fund, directed compensation from a fund for victims of the Virginia Tech massacre and even was appointed as “Pay Czar” by President Barack Obama to set executive compensation levels at companies bailed out by the federal government.

On Thursday, Feinberg was hired by Penn State to help settle personal-injury claims related to former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

He administrated the Sept. 11 and Virginia Tech funds for free. He’ll do the same in Aurora, where he hopes to develop a claim form and a protocol that will get money in the hands of those who need it fast.

“I am doing what millions Americans would do if asked,” he said to reporters at the news conference. “I have had some experience doing this, so I get the call.”

Gov. John Hickenlooper said Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., called him a week ago and asked whether he had talked to Feinberg. On Monday, Hickenlooper picked up the phone and asked for help.

Feinberg said over the past few weeks he had been in contact with a few of the victims and their families.

On Friday, he spent the day meeting with Hickenlooper and his staff and representatives of foundations involved in the Aurora Victim Relief Fund. He said he hopes to visit Denver often and have an office in the governor’s office to process and review claims.

Feinberg said he would propose protocol similar to the one that distributed $7 million from the Virginia Tech victims fund, in which 75 percent of the money was set aside for death claims, 17 percent was for people physically injured and 7 percent was for mental health claims.

Jeremy P. Meyer was a reporter and editorial writer with The Denver Post until 2016. He worked at a variety of weeklies in Washington state before going to the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin as sports writer and then copy editor. He moved to the Yakima Herald-Republic as a feature writer, then to The Gazette in Colorado Springs as news reporter before landing at The Post. He covered Aurora, the environment, K-12 education, Denver city hall and eventually moved to the editorial page as a writer and columnist.

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